I don't know if this is the place for this but it's been on my mind for some time and I think it might be relevant here.

First off here's a term with a definition. I took the definition from Wikipedia. Check with other sources, if you like. I recommend doing that.

Ad Hominem

"Ad hominem (Latin for "to the man" or "to the person"), short for argumentum ad hominem, is now usually understood as a logical fallacy in which an argument is rebutted by attacking the character, motive, or other attribute of the person making the argument, or persons associated with the argument, rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself."

It occurred to me that all of L. Ron Hubbard's directives with regard to handling Scientology's critics and people speaking out about their negative experiences within Scientology, are directives to enact ad hominems. Almost nothing Scientology does by way of rebuttal has to do with dealing with the substance of the criticism directed at the organization, its members or its behavior.

Is Mark Rathbun following the Scientology party line? Can the things he is saying in his videos be classified as ad hominems?

“Think wrongly if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.”
Doris Lessing

The problems with Scientology boycotting or “naming and shaming” Geico are enormous:

1. Geico is a division of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, a company whose 2016 revenue was $223.6 billion USD. A more meaningful protest by STAND would require the naming and shaming of Geico parent Berkshire Hathaway and the many companies it owns or holds a significant interest in. These companies include American Airlines, American Express, Apple, Charter Communications, UPS, IBM, Coca-Cola, MasterCard, Johnson & Johnson, Visa, Costco, Wal-Mart, Duracell, Verizon, Wells Fargo — and just keep going. The list is very long.

2. Scientology’s salespeople, its so-called regges, are helping to enrich Berkshire Hathaway each and every time a Scientologist pays for Scientology’s goods and services with a MasterCard, Visa, American Express, or a Wells Fargo credit card. Likewise, credit cards offered by American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Costco, Bank of New York Mellon, Goldman Sachs, and US Bancorp also help to enrich Berkshire Hathaway. Why isn’t STAND calling for a boycott of these credit card companies? Is boycotting credit card companies hitting too close to home for the money-obsessed Church of Scientology? The answer is a definite yes. Scientology management would likely argue, “by all means cancel your Geico policy as a gesture, but leave AMEX and the rest of the credit card companies the hell alone!”

3. Geico is the second largest auto insurer in the USA and insures over 24,000,000 vehicles. Scientology has perhaps 20,000 – 25,000 members. Therefore, even if all Scientologists were insured by Geico and cancelled, this would only represent 1/10th of 1% of the vehicles insured by Geico. This number is statistically insignificant. Geico’s own website shows 2016 “admitted assets” of $ 27,197,917,293 USD. The incredible shrinking cult of Scientology lacks the power to financially harm anyone except its own members.

4. Leah Remini’s show is available on television, the internet, and all digital devices that can stream television programs. If STAND wanted to boycott all platforms capable of streaming Leah’s show, then STAND would logically name and shame Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Oracle, Adobe, and every other software company and hardware manufacturer whose products contribute to the broadcast of Leah’s show.

5. In order to punish all guilty parties that contribute to Leah’s show, STAND would need to call for a comprehensive boycott of the vast integrated electrical grid and communications network that underlies television, the internet, and mobile devices. This sprawling global network includes hydroelectric power plants; satellites; cell towers; microwave towers; and millions of miles of fiber optic cable and electrical wiring. In the US alone, internet server farms operate more than 100 million hard drives that contain in excess of 350 million terabytes of data.

The Cult Of Scientology ~~Financial Irregularities. Cancellation of American Express privileges.

IN addition to the internal violence, the despicable RPF, horrendous punishments, beatings, sleep deprivation, Oliver Twist food...rice and beans....there is also the factor of financial misdeeds.

In the early 1990s, the regges (salespeople) were out of control. They actually talked numerous people into purchasing their "PATRON" status (in those days $40,000), putting it onto an AMEX card and then not paying and declaring bankruptcy to get off the hook.

This was repeatedly done, and after full AMEX internal investigation,. the Flag Service org, the main income source in the world was terminated by AMEX and no longer permitted to use the card.

Los Angeles Day org similarly had the salespeople make unauthorized charges on AMEX cards for so many, that AMEX pulled the privilege of using the card.

Why does this happen ? Hubbard policy is you are only as good as last week's stats/ Your entire production is calculated Thursday 2pm to Thursday 2pm>

It took years before both these entities got back their American Express Privileges. I am sure the cult pleaded those "rogue" sales people were all fired etc etc.

And the most peculiar thing about all this is that the cult does not look at themselves as criminal for rip off and making AMEX pay for a huge amount of IAS Patron statuses, I AM VIEWED AS AN SP FOR WHISTLEBLOWING AND REPORTING IT !

The financial misconduct never really ceased and bubbled up humorously at the time of selling the Basics. But that will be another post

Breaking News ~~Appeal to the Federal Judge on Taliban Scientology shenaniganshttp://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/c...s ... zEVpg8P4N/
Luis Garcia donated a Million dollars towards Orange County Ideal org. Then they dis-invited him from Grand opening, removed his name from donors plaquen and Declared him a Suppressive Person.
BUT
Kept all of the MILLION dollar donation..
Image: Luis and his Lawyer Ted Babbit, Both Participants of the AFTERMATH

Scientology inc, or, as I call it "Taliban Scientology" is first and foremost a money extortion racket, stockpiling $$$ without paying their fair share of taxes and using exorbitant sums of money for lawyers and Private Investigators (PIs)to attack, slur, slime and discredit anyone who speaks out about their sordid nature.

Quote from Tony Ortega's Bunker:

In 2010, when Cierra was working full time to watch Mike Rinder and Christie Collbran for Scientology, she estimates that the operation in the Clearwater area alone used five rental homes, a dozen rental cars, and five full-time investigators at any one time. At the same time, similar operations were working in Colorado and Texas and Los Angeles.

End of Quote.

5 full time Private Investigators (normally $75 an hour, 8 hours a day) in 4 cities in the US..... Unlimited budget to Fair Game, harass, wager vengeance.
I think it is important that Scientology cult criminality is exposed over and over again.
This is not a cult that is MILDLY criminal. It is wildly criminal.
One of their tactics is to get a litigant to fire their own lawyer and take cash from them.
They have done this numerous times.

In the 1970s the cult put Merrell Vannier in the Mayor's (of Clearwater) office. He was pretending to be the lawyer for the Mayor while feeding all the privileged information he got to the Guardian's office while on the payroll of the Mayor. The Florida Bar found this conduct so egregious that Vannier was barred from practicing law ever again. This kind of spying/infiltration breaking all moral codes did not stop in the 1970s.
An example is Ford Greene (AFTERMATH participant) in the 1980s who was fired by Vicki Aznaran leaving her without legal representation as the cult moved forward with ANOTHER law suit and her settlement was really dirty.

In more recent times we all saw Rathbun fire his lawyer Ray Jeffrey..

Back in the day of the tragic death of Lisa Mcpherson, Jeffrey Goodis, (Joan Wood's lawyer) pretended he was working for the coroner Joan Woods attorney was actually working with David Miscavige. Even representing Miscavige's interests to on how to convince the Coroner Joan Wood to rule on the death of Lisa Mcpherson. Miscavige pampers him with $2000 cuff links, Super Bowl tickets and a John Travolta meeting !
He got Joan Woods to reverse her Coroner's finding. With high bribery from the cult

In February 2000, more than four years after the autopsy in the McPherson case, Dr. Wood, while insisting that she had not broken under pressure from the Church of Scientology, changed the McPherson manner of death to accidental. Her decision outraged the county prosecutor and the police agencies involved in the case. As far as the prosecutor was concerned Dr. Wood had folded under pressure. Some of the journalists following the case speculated that pressure and stress had caused the forensic pathologist to come emotionally unglued. Whether she had been bullied into her reversal or not, her new manner of death ruling destroyed her relationship with the local law enforcement community. The prosecutor had no choice but to drop the case against the Church of Scientology. Dr. Wood resigned her position in September 2000.

Best not to send a reply to that letter, but judging from the name of the letter writer, they are probably a foreign national working for Scientology. I would be tempted to write back, "Hey, Arman, how's your passport doing?"

Or I might be tempted to write back with this: "Arman, your question seems very brief, as if your only interest in writing me is to raise a statistic, and outside of that you don't really care. Perhaps you could write to me again and expand on your question. That way I could better understand what you're getting at. I might even answer it."

Arman Vahdat is what Scientology terms, a letter registrar. My experience in Scientology tells me that letter registrars do not remain posted as such for very long. Odds are that any reply sent to this letter would not get to Arman. Even if he or she isn't reduced to cleaning toilets the Office of Special Affairs person who opens and reads the letter may deem it 'entheta' and put it in a folder Arman will never see.

“Think wrongly if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.”
Doris Lessing